This essay is an analysis of the objects made of bronze found in an excavation Västergarn parish, Gotland, in 2010, conducted by the University of Gotland. The studied material presented in this essay comes from contexts inside, as well as nearby the foundation of a medieval building which purpose is still not certain. The first purpose of this study is to present the bronze-objects found inside and nearby the foundation of house 6, and to see if there are any datable objects. There is also a discussion whether there has been any bronze-crafting in the area. The second purpose is to make a contextual analysis to see if there are any differences between the material found outside and inside of the building, and what conclusions can be made regarding the function and use of the building. A spatial analysis has also been made to distinguish any patterns of the distribution of material inside and around the house.The result of this essay is partly a presentation of the material, but also that there has occurred some bronze-crafting in the form of cutting metal sheets inside or near the foundation treated in this essay. There is no evidence for casting bronze near the house foundation.The frequency of finds from outside the foundation compared to the frequency of finds within the foundation is nearly quadruple, which is to be expected since there probably has been a wooden floor inside the house to prevent all but the tiniest objects from falling through. Objects that landed on the floor were cleaned out, just to land near the entrance of the building. The finds from within the building much resembles the finds from outside the building, and the distribution-patterns of the trench indicates that the entrance to the building probably was located near the north-west corner or near the south-east corner.Hopefully, this study contributes another piece to the great puzzle that is Västergarn.

This master thesis deals with the subject of mass graves as a result of war and violence; how, where and why they are created, what they represent and how they are used throughout the Scandinavian Iron Age and Middle Ages. To analyze and discuss these questions, I have used nine case studies as well as several literary sources such as Beowulf, Tacitus and Jordanes. To further increase the depth of this discussion and to help us understand the mass graves themselves, I have also included subject of warfare in the form of a walkthrough of violence and social psychology. Together, these pieces have helped me form the basis for an analysis and discussion of the three acts I have created: The Ingroup act of deposition, The Outgroup act of deposition and the Triumph act of deposition.

This paper reviews a study of the skulls from the anatomy collection at Gustavianum, Uppsala university museum, historical collections in Uppsala, Sweden. The skulls were found in the central parts of Uppsala, on an area called Östra Ågatan, which is known for being one of the oldest parts in town. The skulls have been dated to medieval period between 11th and 14th centrury and came to be a part of the anatomical collection. Only skulls are available today in the big collection.  Cranial metrics were recorded, probably by the Anatomical department for all skulls in the large anatomical collection. Östra Ågatan is today a road located near Fyrisån, a river that flows through the city. Uppsala is well known for being one of the oldest city in Sweden and Europe. People have lived here for several centuries, and today the area are currently being used the same. The study aims to collect information about the health status on the medieval humans living in Uppsala. Also, to see if the skulls had a connection to the nearby churches that were located near the area under the same period. Questions that the study are examining is, -If the skulls have any connection to a church in the nearby area that they were found in? -Do the skulls have any pathologies, non-metric features or damage?

Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att granska hur genus och genusrelationer uttrycks i svenska, medeltida ballader. Genom att förstå balladkaraktärernas handlingar som performativa, ämnar uppsatsen undersöka hur maskulinitet och femininitet etableras och omförhandlas i balladernas narrativ genom att kartlägga handlingsmönster. Av betydelse är att belysa hur karaktärernas handlingsmöjligheter påverkas av faktorer såsom kön, social status och familjerelationer, men även jämföra hur genusmönster i balladen reflekterar eller utmanar normer och ideal i det senmedeltida samhället. Uppsatsen åskådliggör hur män och kvinnor har möjlighet att utöva och förhandla om makt på olika sätt. Genom detta rör man sig bort från uppfattningen om passivitet och maktlöshet som analogt med femininitet, och aktivitet och makt som synonymt med maskulinitet. Resultaten uppvisar därmed en problematisering och nyansering av genusuttryck i medeltida ballader som saknas i tidigare forskning, och framhäver fördelarna att bedriva ett mer inkluderande synsätt gentemot den här typen av källmaterial inom historievetenskapen.

De moderna beskrivningarna av Gotlands invasion 1361 delar ett ofta använt narrativ, där de gotländska och danska arméerna beskrivs som motsatser. Den danska armén sägs ha bestått av proffs, som var välutbildade och välutrustade. Den gotländska bondemilisen är däremot beskriven som en bondehop, dåligt utbildad och utrustad med föråldrade vapen och rustningar. Men hur stämmer det här narrativet om den gotländska bondemilisen med källorna? I den här uppsatsen studeras den gotländska bondemilisen utifrån samtida källor, regleringar genom lagar och representation i massgravarna efter slaget vid Visby.  Detta genom en källpluralistisk metod där skriftligt och arkeologiskt materialet studeras, i kombination av isotopanalyser på mänskliga kvarlevor. Detta som svar på det moderna narrativet och historiografin om invasionen av Gotland 1361.

Syftet med den här avhandlingen är att studera de roller bilder har i skapandet av dominerande föreställningar om en plats. Exemplen är hämtade från Visby, en stad med välkända medeltida lämningar på ön Gotland i Östersjön. Teoretiska verktyg kommer från kulturarvspolitik, som belyser kulturarv som konstruktioner med objekt värdeladdade av specifika aktörer i särskilda syften och från visuella kulturstudier som fokuserar hur vi betraktar vår omvärld. Bilder och berättelser skapar socialt konstruerade seenden och bortseenden. Dessa seenden, skapar i sin tur mindscapes tillsammans med upplevelser, drömmar, minnen, medierade budskap och ”före-bilder”. Det är Visbys mindscapes som fokuseras här. Med utgångspunkt i Visbys tio-i-topp-motiv diskuteras bilder hämtade från tre grupper av aktörer, kulturarvsbilder, konstbilder och turismbilder. Begrepp som autenticitet, tilltal och modus är viktiga i förståelsen av hur Visbys ikoner tillkommer bland annat genom upprepning av ett litet antal bildmotiv. Då medeltida lämningar och Visbys guldålder som Hansestad ofta ingår i människors mindscapes döljs och överskuggas andra tidsperioder, sociala kontexter och miljöer i Visby. Fotografier, målningar, teckningar, tryck och souvenirer är kraftfulla redskap i den processen. Detta resulterar i att 9/10 av Visby hamnar i skymundan genom stadens status som en medeltida ikon. Den historiska innerstaden har också fått anpassa sig efter föreställningarna om densamma. / This thesis deals with the roles pictures play when collective imaginations of a city are constructed. The examples comes from Visby, a city with famous medieval remains, on the island Gotland in the Baltic. Cultural heritage politics points out heritage as a mode of cultural production. Heritage is constructed when values are added to specific objects by specific actors for specific purposes. Visual cultural studies underline the practices of looking. We are always looking from specific positions. Images and narratives create socially constructed gazes. Gazes together with experiences, dreams, memories, mediated messages and “fore-sights” creates mindscapes. The urban mindscapes of Visby are at focus here. Starting in a Visby top-ten-image-list, images produced and frequently used within the three domains; heritage and tourist industries and the art world are discussed. The images characteristic marks are defined and discussed in terms of authenticity, emotive modes and ways of address. This study also deals with four socially emergent Visby icons and the consequences of the mono-thematic in Visby. When the medieval remains and Hanseatic traders are dominating people’s mindscapes, other periods, social contexts and Visby settings are hidden or overshadowed. The agency of display, a few repeated views in all sorts of media, produces gazes, ways of seeing and unseeing. Photographs, paintings, drawings, prints and souvenirs with Visby motifs are powerful tools in this process. The result is hierarchical orders hard to change. It has not only had the effect that 9/10 of the contemporary city of Visby is being shaded by its status as a medieval icon. The historical centre has also been adjusted in order to fit with the conceptions of the place.

This essay takes its starting point in Legenda Aurea, a hagiographical compendium written in the thirteenth century by an Italian catholic friar, Jacobus de Voragine. The essay aims to find out how the Roman history in the third century is shown in Legenda Aurea, a Christian book written about a thousand years later. The purpose of this essay is to show how a part of the history of the Roman Empire is understood and remembered during the Christian hegemony that was during the thirteenth century. The main results of this essay show that the history of the Roman Empire during the reign of named emperors is remembered as a violent, brutal and authoritarian history, but also that Christianity seems to have been widespread within the Roman Empire during this time.

I ett försök att utöka kunskapsläget kring den agrarhistoriska utvecklingen i nordöstra Skånes ris- och skogsbygd har en undersökning av Näsums socken gjorts. Näsum är beläget i Bromölla kommun, norr om Ivösjön. I undersökningsområdet finns ett gravfält vid namn Gudahagen. Enligt arkeologiska studier har gravfältet använts under järnålder och övergavs troligtvis i början av medeltiden. Intill gravfältet finns två byar belägna, Näsum och Västanå. Möjligtvis har dessa byar en lång historisk kontinuitet som boplats. Del av studien har undersökningar av exempelvis historiska kartor, geologi, topografi, fornlämningar och ort- och marknamn varit. För en djupare förståelse för en av de centrala byarna i Näsum har en historisk karta över Västanå rektifierats och digitaliserats i GIS, för att sedan analyseras i kombination med exempelvis terrängskuggningar och geologiska kartor. Undersökningarna har visat att det finns likheter mellan det historiska landskapet i Näsum och motsvarande landskap i det närbelägna Stoby. Dessutom kan vissa paralleller dras till halländska kulturlandskap. Det går även att utläsa samband mellan exempelvis markanvändning, geologi och topografi. Näsums bykärnor har varit begränsade till de flacka sandjordarna och har naturliga gränser mot den tuffare terrängen i det omgivande moränlandskapet. Sannolikt har även vattnet, både åarna och Ivösjön, spelat en avgörande roll för byarnas placering, försörjning och markanvändning. Ortnamn i socknen tyder på att bygden expanderat under medeltid och kanske även under vikingatid. Sannolikt har bygden expanderat från den större sandslätten i centrala Näsum där byarna Västanå och Näsum är belägna, ut mot socknens gränser. / In an attempt to broaden the state of knowledge regarding the agrarian historical development in north east of Scania, a study of the parish of Näsum has been made. Näsum is located in Bromölla, north of Ivösjön. Located in the central study area, there is a grave field called Gudahagen. According to archaeological studies, the grave field was used during the Iron Age, and was probably abandoned in the early Middle Ages. Two villages, Näsum and Västanå, are located adjacent to the grave field. These villages might have a long historical continuity. Historical maps, geology, topography, ancient remains and land names are examples of factors that has been studied. For a deeper understanding of one of the central villages in Näsum, a historical map of Västanå has been rectified and digitized in GIS, and later analyzed in combination with, for example, terrain shadows and geological maps. The studies have shown that there are similarities between historic landscapes in Näsum and in Stoby, a parish located nearby. Some parallels can also be drawn between the historic landscapes in Näsum och in Halland. In Näsum there are also connections between land use, geology and topography. Näsum's villages have been limited to the sandy plains and have natural boundaries towards the tougher terrain in the surrounding moraine landscape. It’s also likely that the water in Näsum, both Ivösjön and the streams, has played a big part when it comes to planning of land use. Place names in the parish indicate that a medieval expansion has taken place. Perhaps the expansion started as early as in the Viking Age. The villages have probably expanded from the larger sandy plains in the center of Näsum towards the parish boundaries.

This Master ́s thesis focused on the oral health of people who lived in Old Lödöse, Sweden during the Middle Ages. Old Lödöse is approximately 4 miles northeast of Gothenburg. The town existed between 1100 and 1646, and within it you can find St. Peder ́s church, St. Olov ́s church and a monastery. The analyzed material was from these three places and consisted of 58 individuals affected by various oral pathology. From St. Peder ́s church there were 33 individuals, from St. Olov ́s there were 4 individuals and from the monastery there were 19 individuals. They were mostly young adults (20 – 35 year) and middle age adults (35 – 50 year), and there were more men (22) than women (14) in the material. Even though there were more individuals at St. Peder ́s church, the monastery’s individuals were more severely affected by various oral pathologies, furthermore the men were more severely affected with oral pathology than the women. In addition, there were two interesting discoveries. Seven individuals, three of them women, had black discoloring on their teeth, and there were six individuals, four of them men, that had special dental wear that may reflect “teeth as tools”, some in the form of grooves. Summarized, the oral health at Old Lödöse was poor.

A test of combining retrogressive analysis of historic maps of the Sigtuna area villages Billby, Bärmö, Eneby, Til and Venngarn from the seventeenth century with archaeobotanical results pertaining to the tenth, eleventh and twelfth century. The study examines meadow distribution and character while aiming to determine to what extent retrogressive and archaeobotanical methods can compliment each other. Through the combination of methods, landscape change is discussed.  I explore how these meadows changed from the eleventh century to the seventeenth, which meadows could reasonably be presumed to have originated in prehistoric or early historic times and whether the hypothetical habitats produced by a previous archaeobotanical study of Sigtuna macrofossils could be tied to the meadows. The study shows that the grassland was generally wetter in the eleventh century, and that thirteen out of twenty meadows may have originated already in prehistoric time and been more or less continually mowed until at least late seventeenth century. Wet meadows, calcareous wet meadows, water meadows and potentially calcareous fens could be detected in the investigated area. The study shows that the multi-disciplinary approach as well as source pluralism indeed results in a beneficial analysis synergy and that the meadows in question are possible points of origin for the macrofossils from some of Sigtuna’s oldest strata.